TheNewspaperhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/
TheNewspaper: A Journal of Driving and Politicsen-usFederal Judge Tosses Red Light Camera Lawsuit Filed Against Fifty-Three Citieshttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4757.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4757.aspOne man cannot file a lawsuit against every Texas city that uses red light cameras. That was the ruling Wednesday by US District Judge John McBryde in throwing out the wide-ranging suit filed in April by James H. Watson against fifty-three towns. The judge will hear Watson's arguments only against Southlake, the town that actually ticketed him, and its vendor, Redflex Traffic Solutions of Australia.

"While the parties and the court devoted significant resources to the presentation of and resolution of the motions to dismiss, in the final analysis the issue that the dismissals turned on was a relatively uncomplicated issue as to whether plaintiff had standing to sue cities and private entities who had done nothing to harm him," Judge McBryde wrote.

Watson, a Shreveport, Louisiana resident, received a $75 ticket in the mail after his 2009 Honda was photographed at the intersection of FM-1709 and Pearson Lane in Southlake. Watson argues that the city had threatened his credit rating if he did not pay up, even though he was not driving the car at the time. He argued that the state law authorizing the use of automated ticketing machines violates the state constitution in order to generate over $128 million in revenue.

By suing so many cities, the court docket quickly swelled as each city had to individually respond to the claims. Watson tried to escape dismissal by arguing the case should be transferred back to state court, where he had originally filed his case. Judge McBryde said it would be "grossly unfair" to the cities to give Watson a second chance to make the same arguments in a different venue.

"Sending those claims back to state court would serve unnecessarily to multiply the time and expense incurred by fifty-two Texas municipalities if they were to be required upon a return to state court to again go through the procedures they already have gone through in federal court to persuade the court that the state law claims against them should be dismissed," Judge McBryde wrote. "The waste of taxpayer-generated funds that would result from such an outcome is an exceptional circumstance as to why this court has properly maintained, and should maintain, supplemental jurisdiction for resolution of those claims."

The ruling came as a relief to the state's other red light camera providers, American Traffic Solutions and Xerox, who were let off the legal hook.

"Obey the law, stop on red and standing will never be an issue," ATS spokesman Charles Territo told TheNewspaper.

A copy of the final ruling is available in a 500k PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-31T00:37-08:00License Plate Camera Case Goes To California Supreme Court http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4756.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4756.aspThe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are not giving up in their fight to compel greater transparency in the use of automated license plate readers (ALPR, also known as ANPR in Europe). The groups on Monday filed briefs with the California Supreme Court in their effort to overturn a lower court decision handed down last year (view ruling) denying access to a sampling of the data that police agencies in Los Angeles collect about motorists who are suspected of no wrongdoing. In May, the state Court of Appeal came to the same conclusion, to the dismay of the privacy advocates.

"This case has significant precedential impact, setting a troubling standard allowing police to keep these records and details of its surveillance of ordinary, law-abiding citizens from ever being scrutinized," EFF attorney Jennifer Lynch wrote. "The appeals court ruling may apply not only to records collected with license plate cameras, but to data collected using other forms of automatic and indiscriminate surveillance systems, from body cameras and dash cameras to public surveillance cameras and drones. Without access to these records, we can't ensure police accountability."

At issue is whether the database of license plate information extracted from the plate reading cameras constitutes a public record under state law. The statute exempts documents related to ongoing investigations from disclosure so that, for example, a career criminal cannot request a copy of his file to find out whether he is being wiretapped. ACLU and EFF are asking for a week's worth of plate records so that they can have a good idea of the extent of government surveillance of innocent drivers. The groups estimate that 99.8 percent of records are unrelated to any suspicious activity and that applying this exemption to records created by an entirely automated process is unprecedented.

"No case in California has ever before held that this kind of automatic, indiscriminate and untargeted collection of data on the public by the police constitutes an 'investigation' -- or that data collected through this kind of surveillance regime are 'records' of a police investigation," Lynch wrote. "Such a ruling appears contrary to the California Constitution, which not only mandates that the public has a constitutional right to government records but also requires that statutes and other authorities, such as the law involved in our case, 'shall be broadly construed if they further the people's right of access, and narrowly construed if they limit the right of access.'"

Each license plate reader has the capability of scanning tens of thousands of plates an hour. With the information entered into a searchable database, law enforcement can build patterns of where and when every motorist in the city travels, even creating real-time tracking alerts.

The high court has not yet decided whether it will hear the appeal. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-30T00:02-08:00Vehicle Travel Reaches An All-Time Highhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4755.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4755.aspMotorists are hitting the roads in greater numbers than they ever have. The latest Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) data show the number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States has finally rebounded, reaching an all-time high of three trillion miles driven in the past twelve months and surpassing the pre-recession peak of 2007.

When economic turmoil struck, drivers responded to the rise in unemployment and lack of economic growth by putting down the car keys. Slowly, they have picked them back up, and this year, overall travel is up 3.4 percent. The return has taken government officials by surprise. As late as last year, US Department of Transportation economists expressed amazement that the vehicle miles traveled had not rebounded earlier as the economic recovery kicked in.

Officials have cited the decline in miles traveled to call for an expansion in tolling to fill in for "falling" gas tax revenue. US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman John Thune (R-South Dakota) on Tuesday called for passage of the federal highway funding bill, the Drive Act, that includes a number of provisions promoting the use of toll roads.

"While transportation bills are nothing new here in the Senate, the bill before us today is notable because it's the first transportation bill in almost a decade to provide more than two years of funding for our nation's infrastructure needs," Thune said.

The massive highway and transit program funding bill would ease the process by which states create a "pilot project" to convert an existing interstate freeway into a toll road, to the applause of industry groups such as the US Tolling Coalition. By contrast, groups representing regular road users such as the National Motorists Association, American Trucking Association, Farm Bureau, FedEx and UPS blasted the idea.

"Pilot programs exist to gauge the viability of an idea, and the Interstate System Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Pilot Program has proven that tolling existing interstates is not a feasible option," the groups wrote in joint a letter to Senate lawmakers. "It should be repealed, not expanded."

Overall, gas tax revenue is not falling nationwide. According to the US Census Bureau's latest figures, combined state and local gasoline tax revenue was $41,447,220 in 2012, a record high. Even during the recession, gas tax receipts dipped only once, by 2.9 percent in 2009. Gas tax revenue has increased every year since. Federal gas tax receipts recovered from the 2007 peak of $24.5 billion, reaching $25 billion in 2012. While the Census Bureau has not released more recent numbers, they increase with vehicle miles traveled. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-29T00:46-08:00Iowa: Court Allows Drinking Alcohol Allowed In Parking Lotshttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4754.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4754.aspIowa motorists who wish to drink while behind the wheel of an automobile can do so -- as long as they do not leave the liquor store parking lot. The state Court of Appeals came to that conclusion last week in the case of Lacey Rose Brown, who was arrested in a Des Moines parking lot on August 10, 2013 after an officer noticed she had an open container of alcohol in the center console of her vehicle. Officer Walter Garrett insisted that this was illegal, so he and his partner approached and searched her vehicle.

"A driver of a motor vehicle upon a public street or highway shall not possess in the passenger area of the motor vehicle an open or unsealed bottle, can, jar, or other receptacle containing an alcoholic beverage," Iowa Code Section 321.284 states.

The question of whether a parking lot is a "public street or highway" is not settled. Last month, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that laws against certain "serious traffic offenses" applied to private lots (view ruling). Likewise, Polk County, Iowa Judge Odell G. McGhee II ruled against Brown holding that the public's widespread use of the lot made it a "public street or highway" where the state's open container law applies. On this point, even the arresting officer thought differently.

"I would not consider it a public space... you can't just sit there," Officer Garrett testified. "We're, you know, supposed to walk up to them and see why they're just standing there. Just to make sure everything is okay. So I guess as far as the loitering policy, you can't just stand there."

The unanimous three-judge appellate panel cited a 1969 state Supreme Court decision involving the possession of a gun in a parking lot to hold that a private parking lot is fundamentally private. The judges decided the same reasoning applied to the circumstances at hand.

"Here, the public had implied permission from the owner to park in the lot at certain times, but otherwise the use of the lot was restricted to persons having permits from the proprietor that allowed them to park there," Chief Judge David R. Danilson wrote for the court. "Thus, the lot was not 'open to the use of the public, as a matter of right' as required by the definition for a public street or highway."

Because the search was invalid, the evidence against Brown -- a small amount of marijuana found under her seat -- was suppressed. A copy of the decision is available in a 100k PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-28T01:20-08:00France, Germany, Hong Kong: Speed Cameras Sacked, Burnedhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4751.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4751.aspCigarette sellers in France protested restrictive government anti-smoking proposals by cutting off speed camera revenues last week. The movement kicked off in the south of France and quickly spread. The group Non Au Paquet Neutre coordinated attacks on dozens of cameras within each of the regions of Bordeaux, Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrenees, Gironde, Meuse, Correze, Bas-Rhin and Correze. Black plastic trash bags with the protest message "they want to break my tobacconist" covered the automated ticketing machines to prevent them from generating revenue. France's legislative body last week took up a proposal to mandate that cigarettes could only be sold in plain white packaging.

On Tuesday, farmers in Brest protested government policy by destroying the speed camera on the Iroise Bridge by setting it on fire. The farmers began their protest by blocking traffic with a convoy of about sixty tractors, Cote brest reported. In Vienne, red spraypaint was used on Tuesday to disable the speed camera on the RD951 in Saint-Julien l'Ars. According to La Nouvelle Republique, this is the third time the device has been sabotaged.

In Hong Kong, a speed camera failed to prevent an accident that resulted in the device's destruction. Makers of the EasyPark cell phone app posted a photograph of the wrecked speed camera on Facebook and praised the driver's "heroic sacrifice," to the delight of more than 2000 users who liked the post. This was followed by comments such as "well done" and "good job."

In Dusseldorf, Germany, vigilantes last Monday shot a speed camera, Westdeutsche Zeitung reported. The lenses of the automated ticketing machine were shattered just one week after being covered with spraypaint. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-27T00:27-08:00Indiana: Federal Court Denies Motorist Right To Stop In Safe Locationhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4749.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4749.aspThe use of unmarked police cars in many states puts motorists in a bind. When they see flashing lights in the rear view mirror, they can either pull over immediately in a dark, sketchy location and take their chances that the lights are not those of an impersonator, or they can drive for a few moments to stop in a safe, public location and risk being treated to a hostile stop and search of their vehicle by legitimate police. A precedent set earlier this month by a federal judge in the unsympathetic case of Djuane Lamar McPhaul will push drivers to stop immediately, no matter what.

On December 21, 2013, Ball State University Police Officer Andrew Sell, in a marked cruiser, decided to stop McPhaul's white Cadillac after noticing a black male was behind the wheel and the car was registered to someone with a suspended license. It was 3:15am, and instead of immediately pulling over, McPhaul drove for less than a mile at low speeds to the nearest well lit gas station. He pulled into a parking spot.

Officer Sell ordered McPhaul out of the car, and because McPhaul took nearly a minute to comply, his anger intensified. McPhaul got out of his car holding his cell phone and his wallet. McPhaul was handcuffed and searched while ten officers from the Muncie Police Department arrived at the scene.

The situation presented government prosecutors with an ideal test case. McPhaul had previously been convicted for armed robbery, so in addition to driving on a suspended license problem, he was caught wearing level IIIA body armor, which protects against handgun rounds, and with a Smith and Wesson Sigma 9mm handgun in the center console. Both items are prohibited to convicted felons. A safe in the car contained $2245 in cash, which the officers promptly confiscated.

US District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ruled that the initial traffic stop was legitimate because McPhaul committed several traffic infractions, including an illegal turn. She also upheld the warrantless search of his vehicle.

"After Officer Sell turned on his police lights and siren, Mr. McPhaul did not immediately stop but instead traveled for nearly a mile and made four turns before finally coming to a stop in a gas station parking lot," Judge Pratt wrote. "These facts are sufficient probable cause for an arrest for resisting law enforcement in a vehicle."

Because the arrest was valid, the judge upheld the warrantless search of the vehicle as well. The case will now proceed to trial. Last week, McPhaul sought to introduce evidence in his case taken from his pending civil rights lawsuit against the police department. The same department had arrested him eight months before the traffic stop in question, and one of the officers, David Barnes, allegedly assaulted him. McPhaul claims he was set up and that Officers Sell and Barnes communicated by cell phone during the December stop.

A copy of the ruling is available in a 350k PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-24T00:33-08:00California Appeal Court Backs Stop Sign Camerashttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4753.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4753.aspAlthough the California legislature has not explicitly sanctioned the use of stop sign cameras, the state Court of Appeal gave the automated ticketing systems a green light on Friday. A three-judge panel turned aside a legal challenge to the Mountains Recreation and Conservancy Authority (MRCA), which set up the cameras without following any of the state laws governing the use of red light cameras.

MRCA is a state government agency that manages 50,000 acres of park land between Santa Monica and Simi Valley. In 2007, it gave Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia free rein to issue automated citations using the first-of-their-kind stop sign cameras in Franklin Canyon in the heart of Los Angeles and another at the top of Topanga.

Under California law, red light camera tickets may only be issued if the driver is clearly visible in the photograph. Positive identification is required because the driver, who may not be the registered owner, will have a point assessed against his license. MRCA decided it did not want to pay Redflex for verifying photographs of drivers and instead called the $175 citations "administrative penalties." This arrangement allowed the agency to avoid splitting fine revenue with the state government. Motorist Danny Everett argued that was illegal.

For the appellate judges, the question turned on whether the roads within the MRCA jurisdiction are governed exclusively by the vehicle code. In 2011, the state legislature slipped in a vaguely worded provision saying the requirement for traffic laws to be uniform in the state "does not impair the current lawful authority" of MRCA to manage its lands. The court assumed this provision constituted authorization for the agency to create its own vehicle code.

"There is no language in the noted public resources code sections [establishing MRCA] which refers to compliance with the requirements of the vehicle code," Justice Tricia A. Bigelow wrote for the court. "In adopting and enforcing the MRCA ordinance, MRCA undoubtedly was acting in a 'management' capacity over the parkland properties under its control... Application of the vehicle code's provisions governing automated traffic enforcement systems, in particular Vehicle Code Section 210, plainly would diminish the value of, and or do harm to, MRCA's automated video camera traffic enforcement systems because the vehicle code requires automated traffic enforcement systems to have the capability of imaging the driver of a vehicle, and MRCA's system does not have that capability."

The particular legislation that created the MRCA loophole, Senate Bill 949, was explicitly introduced to stop cities from issuing administrative violations to avoid giving the state a cut of speeding ticket and red light camera ticket revenue. The court cited a statement from the bill analysis explaining the provision was designed to save the MRCA's camera program.

A copy of the ruling is available in a 200k PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-23T00:17-08:00Illinois: Chicago Defends Use Of Illegally Short Yellow Timeshttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4752.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4752.aspChicago, Illinois is saying "too bad" to motorists upset at receiving red light camera tickets at intersections where the yellow warning times were shorter than permitted under federal regulations. The city's lawyers have been mustering arguments to fend off a challenge by attorney Patrick J. Keating who has been trying to take down the scandal-plagued system for several years. The class action suit is something of a rematch as the state Supreme Court failed to reach a consensus when it considered a similar case by Keating in November. A hearing on the newly revised arguments is scheduled for next week before Cook County Circuit Court Judge Rita Novak.

Keating's contention on behalf of five affected motorists is that the program violates state and federal law, particularly the use of yellow signal warning times below the federal minimum of 3.0 seconds. The city's lawyers insist Chicago can get away with 2.9 second yellows because federal statutes contain no explicit penalties for flouting the law.

"Fatal to plaintiffs' claims, however, is that neither the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices nor the identified statutes impose a legally-enforceable minimum yellow change interval because the MUTCD 'describes the application of traffic control devices, but shall not be a legal requirement for their installation,'" city attorney Stephen R. Patton wrote to Judge Novak.

Chicago insists that a 1973 court case Blase v. Illinois renders the federal regulations a mere suggestion or recommendation. Chicago's red light camera vendor, Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia, issued over 77,000 tickets to motorists at intersections where the yellow lasted for less than three seconds. Keating argued that the city's legal problems began with the way state lawmakers botched its attempt to give legal sanction to the ticketing program years after it had began.

"The hurriedly drafted 2006 amendment to the vehicle code to allow red light cameras statewide, intended as 'legislative cover' for Chicago's illegal program, could not pass the state Senate until after legislators whittled away 94 counties where, according to sponsor John Cullerton, legislators 'didn't want to have this option in their counties,'" Keating explained in an email to reporters. "In the rush to protect the city, the General Assembly passed a rare piece of facially 'local legislation,' which is barred by the state constitution."

Chicago has an extra headache in this case considering the top US executive for Redflex is expected to plead guilty next month to bribing city officials to secure the red light camera contract -- the most lucrative of its type in the world.

"At the time the city and Redflex began their business arrangement, both knew or should have known that Chicago had no legal authority to operate a red light camera program like that contemplated in their agreements, and so the agreements were void and against public policy," Keating wrote. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-22T00:55-08:00Federal Appeals Court Declares Air Fresheners Suspicioushttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4750.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4750.aspDriving a vehicle that has a couple air fresheners, rosaries and pro-police bumper stickers at 2 MPH over the speed limit is suspicious. That was the finding handed down last Thursday by the Fifth Circuit US Court of Appeals. A unanimous three-judge panel upheld the March 9, 2011 traffic stop that led to the conviction of Ruben Pena-Gonzalez in South Texas.

On that day, Kingsville Police Officer Mike Tamez was patrolling on Highway 77 when he saw a Chevy Tahoe with a woman behind the wheel, Pena-Gonzalez in the passenger seat, and a young girl in the back seat. The family vehicle had rosaries hanging from the rear view mirror, a DARE bumper sticker on the back and a few air fresheners. Officer Tamez concluded from this that they were probably drug runners. He decided to stop them for driving barely above the speed limit.

Officer Tamez ordered Nehmi Pena-Gonzalez, the driver, to step out of the vehicle after noticing her key chain had a St. Jude medal. She told the officer in Spanish that she was driving home to the city of Mission with her husband and daughter. Officer Tamez noted that this was an "inconsistent" answer, since her insurance card said she lived in Palmview, which is a suburb of Mission. She was also unclear about whether she spent one day or two in Houston. Officer Tamez said he would let her go with a warning, but then he decided to question her husband, Ruben Pena-Gonzalez, who agreed to a search of their vehicle.

At this point, the Court of Appeals stepped in to decide whether Officer Tamez exceeded his authority in detaining the family after he had finished writing the warning notice for the 2 MPH infraction. The court decided that the air fresheners provided "reasonable suspicion" that the family was involved in crime.

"We do have concerns that classifying pro-law enforcement and anti-drug stickers or certain religious imagery as indicators of criminal activity risks putting drivers in a classic 'heads I win, tails you lose' position," the appellate panel wrote in its per curiam decision. "But we need not decide whether these items alone, or in combination with one another, amount to reasonable suspicion because we find the more suspicious evidence to be the array of air fresheners and inconsistencies in the driver's responses to the officer's basic questions. We have long recognized that the presence of air fresheners, let alone four of them placed throughout an SUV, suggests a desire to mask the odor of contraband."

Since the panel upheld the basis for extending the traffic stop, the evidence subsequently found in the Tahoe -- $670,000 in cash -- sustained Ruben Pena-Gonzalez's 41-month prison sentence for money laundering. This was far from the first major seizure by the Kingsville Police Department. Last year, the town confiscated 21 vehicles and $1,099,558 in cash.

A copy of the ruling is available in a PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-21T00:12-08:00France: Speed Cameras Defaced, Burnedhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4748.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4748.aspVigilantes disabled a speed camera in Lussac-les-Chateaux, France on Tuesday. According to La Nouvelle Republique, the same automated ticketing machine had been attacked several times in the past. This time, red spraypaint was used to cover the camera lenses to prevent citations from being issued. Red spraypaint was also the weapon of choice in Bellevue-la-Montagne, where vigilantes disabled the automated ticketing machine on the RD906, Renouveau reported. According to Dernieres Nouvelles d'Alsace, red spraypaint took out the speed camera in Siewiller in Alsace Bossue. The vigilantes also wrote the number "67" on the side of the automated ticketing machine.

Vigilantes switched to light blue paint in Versailles. Le Parisien reported that the camera on the D185 was disabled on Friday. In Allier, the speed camera on the RN7 near Saint-Gerand-le-Puy was damaged after being set on fire last Tuesday, according to La Montagne. The brand new, portable speed camera in Bretagne was also set on fire last week, 20 Minutes reported. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-20T00:23-08:00Report Shows School Bus Accidents Are Rarehttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4742.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4742.aspA child is nearly four times more likely to be struck by the driver of a school bus than by another motorist, according to the latest figures released by the US Department of Transportation. Experts at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reviewed a decade's worth of data covering 1214 fatal accidents involving school buses and presented their results in a report last month.

"From 2004 to 2013, over two-thirds of the school-age pedestrians fatally injured in crashes were struck by school buses or vehicles functioning as school buses," the report explains.

Several state legislatures have authorized the installation of cameras on school buses to automatically issue tickets to motorists who "pass" stopped school buses. Lawmakers insist the expensive citations, which can run up to $500 each, will cut down on deadly accidents involving school children. The NHTSA data reveal that it is in fact three times more likely that it is the bus driver, not the passing motorist, who endangers children.

Between 2004 and 2013, 67 children (under age 18) were struck and killed by a school bus. In addition, 123 adults were killed by school buses over the same period. Adults, in fact, proved to be at greater risk than children in collisions involving a school bus.

"There were almost three times more fatalities among occupants of other vehicles (147) than occupants of school transportation vehicles (54)," the report notes.

Motorists were responsible for 38 fatal accidents over the ten-year period, but the records show that only 6 of these ocurred while the other driver was attempting a passing maneuver, which includes driving around a bus.

Taken all together, the fatal accident rate for young school bus occupants remains low. In the last decade, there were an average of eight fatal accidents a year -- or 0.16 fatal accidents per year, per state. While 61 bus passengers died in ten years, so did 45 bus drivers.

Bus drivers struck and killed a total of 189 pedestrians of all ages compared to 49 that were struck by other automobiles near a school bus. Occupants of other vehicles experienced 955 fatalities in school bus related accidents.

A copy of the report is available in a 350k PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-17T00:12-08:00Nevada: Government Must Pay For Taking Cash From Innocent Motoristhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4747.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4747.aspA motorist passing through Nevada had all of his cash taken, legally, by a Elko County sheriff's deputy. This week, lawyers for Straughn Gorman presented the bill for legal costs that the government owes for illegally stopping and searching Gorman's 2001 Trail-Lite motorhome and grabbing the $167,070 he was carrying.

Last month, US District Judge Larry R. Hicks blasted prosecutors for only telling "half of the story" to obtain the search warrant that uncovered the cash. On Monday, federal prosecutors blasted Gorman for asking them to foot the entire $153,002 legal bill that he had been forced to pay to recover his $167,070. The scathing review of the case from Judge Hicks suggests Gorman will get back every penny.

Gorman's troubles began on January 23, 2013 as he drove on Interstate 80 on his way to California in his white motorhome. Deputy Doug Fisher claimed he saw the motorhome "drift to the right" and it had a partially closed side curtain, so he pulled Gorman over. A drug dog alerted on the vehicle. When Gorman refused a search, Deputy Fisher called a Justice of the Peace Brian E. Boatman to obtain a warrant to search the motorhome.

"The driver indicated he had no job," Deputy Fisher told the judge. "And upon an EPIC [El Paso Intelligence Center] check it was informaed the driver had multiple border crossings with the most recent in 2012 from Madrid, Spain into the United States. Secondly, it was informed the subject transferred $11,000 in cash to another subject with an unknown name."

Based on this, and no other evidence, Deputy Fisher explained that he believed there narcotics would be found in the motorhome. The search took place 42 minutes after the traffic stop had begun, and nothing illegal was found.

Judge Hicks took note of many inconsistencies in the deputy's testimony. Most prominently, the dashcam video of the stop, and Deputy Fisher's own arrest report, establishes that Gorman told the officer he owned a paddleboard company in Hawaii -- he was not unemployed, as the deputy claimed. The video also fails to show Deputy Fisher performing the claimed records check.

Judge Hicks took note of this, and called out Assistant US Attorney Greg Addington for failing to mention in any of his briefs that Nevada State Trooper Greg Monroe had stopped Gorman an hour before Deputy Fisher's traffic stop. The trooper is the one who performed the EPIC records check and communicated the results to Deputy Fisher saying he believed the motorhome was headed westbound carrying money and that a drug dog was needed to justify a search.

"The court is disappointed that the United States would aggressively pursue this forfeiture action while all of its moving documents for summary judgment and supporting affidavits contained material omissions concerning the history leading to the traffic stop and canine sniff at issue," Judge Hicks wrote. "The government's nondisclosure of the information regarding Monroe's initial stop is troublesome for many reasons, but certainly because the relationship between the two stops is so obviously relevant to the legal issues before the court.... Gorman is undoubtedly the successful party here... The seized funds shall be returned to Gorman, or his designee, within thirty days of the entry of this order."

Throughout the case, Gorman refused to answer the government's questions about the source of the money. He said he was under no obligation to submit to their questioning. A copy of the June decision is available in a 200k PDF file at the source link below. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-16T15:03-08:00Illinois: Fake Bankruptcy Filing Releases Cars From Impoundhttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4746.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4746.aspMunicipalities in the Chicago, Illinois region generate substantial revenue through impounding cars with outstanding parking and red light camera tickets. Authorities grab over 50,000 automobiles each year, creating $25 million in profit from the $500 charge to release the vehicles -- an amount that does not include the required full payment of back penalties.

Daniel Rankins, 32, realized that residents who could not afford the thousands required to pay the fees and fines could still get their car back by filing for bankruptcy. Rankins last week was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for charging $600 to file bogus petitions that helped at least eighty drivers retrieve their rides.

"What he came up with was a pretty sophisticated system," US District Judge Robert M. Dow Jr said of the scheme. "He could have found a better way to apply himself."

What Rankins noticed, to the dismay of local officials, was that nobody actually read the bankruptcy filings. It was only after a finance department clerk noted about a thousand vehicles had been freed from the impound without paying the associated fines and fees that the agency began to suspect that something was amiss. Investigators set up a sting operation on January 7, 2013 to catch "Little D," the alias used by Rankins.

An undercover cop approached Rankins claiming that he owed Chicago $4200 and that he would be willing to pay $600 to get his car back. Rankins filled out paperwork designed to remove Chicago's legal claim to hold the agent's supposed property. For this, Rankins was charged with bankruptcy fraud.

To qualify for federal bankruptcy under Chapter 7, a debtor must file a document listing of all his assets and liabilities, all his income and expenses, and all his creditors. Normally, there is a $306 fee to file this material, but fees can be waived for impoverished debtors. As federal prosecutors explained, federal law forced the city to release the automobiles when a motorist produced a receipt proving that he had filed a bankruptcy petition.

"The filing of a petition under Chapter 7 automatically stayed most collection actions against the debtor or the debtor's property," the US attorney's office explained in its indictment. "The stay arose by operation of law and required no judicial action."

Rankins provided a partially completed Chapter 7 filing, a bankruptcy fee waiver form and a document certifying completion of a "credit counseling" course that was never actually taken. The forms listed no assets other than the particular vehicle in the Chicago impound lot. The motorist would then sign the form and turn it in. While the technique would likely work in other major cities, Chicago says it has taken steps to read some bankruptcy filings.

"As a result of office of inspector general and FBI work, the law department is now working more closely with the US Trustee's Office to carefully screen suspicious bankruptcy petitions before releasing an impounded vehicle whenever the owner submits proof of bankruptcy," Chicago Inspector General Joseph M. Ferguson explained. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-15T00:03-08:00Florida: Vendor Tries To Save Red Light Cameras Despite Accident Risehttp://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4745.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4745.aspAccidents are up at the intersections with red light cameras in Hollywood, Florida, but American Traffic Solutions (ATS) is desperate to keep the troubled system alive. City commissioners last week unanimously approved an ordinance to dump the controversial devices, only to back away from the resolution after ATS proposed a last-minute deal. The company will, in effect, pay the council to ignore the city police chief's warning about the impact of automated ticketing since January 2011.

"Just so we're clear, we looked at empirical data, we did a lot of thorough research on accidents and fatalities," Chief Tomas Sanchez said on Wednesday. "We have also seen a dramatic increase in most intersections of twice as much rear end accidents occur after the red light camera implementation [compared] to before the red light camera implementation. As a whole, there have been more accidents at each intersection."

The program has also failed to produce the promised amount of revenue to the city, largely due to state-mandated increases in yellow signal warning times that took effect on May 31, 2013. As most of the tickets were written for minor, split-second violations, the extra time has caused citation revenue to plunge. On top of this, a Florida Court of Appeals decision declared the process ATS used to review citations in Hollywood was illegal, so the city has been unable to collect fines since March. ATS will now forgive $100,000 in charges to the city in return for sixty days to find a way to work around the appellate court ruling and create a profitable ticketing program.

"We have some options that we've negotiated," ATS salesman Orlando Torres told the council. "Programs are not shutting down all over the state. Some have, many continue on as they make changes to their process. So allow us to continue to do this. Either we bring something back to you, or we don't, and at the end of the day you'll make your decision."

The proposal raised controversy with Commissioners Traci L. Callari and Peter D. Hernandez, who pointed out that the commission had already voted to dump ATS in a unanimous vote. Red light camera supporters, including Commissioner Patty Asseff, hoped the last-minute monetary offer would vindicate the photo ticketing program. Asseff insisted the cameras saved lives, but Chief Sanchez pointed out that this was not correct.

"So, for public safety and for the accidents, the data is not clear that -- does not show... a reduction in accidents," Chief Sanchez said. "It shows the contrary -- an increase in some places, as much as a three- or four-fold increase in rear end accidents."

The commission voted 4 to 3 to accept the deal under which ATS would not charge the contractual $48,000 monthly red light camera fee that the city would have to have been obligated to pay had it given the sixty-days notice that it intended to cancel the photo ticketing contract. The commission will vote again on a revised deal from ATS. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-14T00:50-08:00France: Three Speed Cameras Spraypainted http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4744.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/47/4744.aspVigilantes last week disabled speed cameras throughout Alsace, France with spraypaint. According to L'Alsace, the camera lenses were blocked with paint on the A36 in Mulhouse, the RN66 in Wittelsheim and the RD466 in Guewenheim. The vigilantes added the slogan "Elsass Frei" or "Free Alsace" on the side of the automated ticketing machines. Source]]>TheNewspaper Editor2015-07-13T00:33-08:00